Angus

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ANGUS Cattle

Breed information

Geographical - historical info

The modern Aberdeen-Angus is a highly developed beef animal whose ancestry may be traced back to several polled strains of 19th century Scotland. Originally both horned and polled strains were raised in Aberdeenshire.

The Aberdeen-Angus became popular, was widely spread throughout Great Britain, and exported all over the world. World-wide, the Aberdeen-Angus breed numbers 50 million animals. In America, Canada and Australia it is very popular - it is the primary beef breed in the USA and it is by far the most important beef breed in New Zealand. Furthermore herdbooks have been established in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Germany, Brazil (1906), Argentina (1879) and South Africa (1906).

Morphological info

By the early 1960's, the Scottish Aberdeen-Angus had been developed into an extremely early-maturing, very small and blocky animal, but numbers declined when the demand for a larger, leaner type became fashionable. With the import of the bigger Canadian and American Angus after 1971, the Scottish breed became modernized. The wither height of cows rose from 110 cm to 125 cm, while the modern bulls now stand 135 cm. Cows weigh 650 kg and bulls 1,000 kg on average. Originally of all colours, the Aberdeen-Angus was selected for the black colour during the first decades of its development. Black was linked to the cattle of the Celts, and therefore this colour stood for hardiness. Recently red specimens of the breed are also accepted by the herdbook. Breed characteristics are the pointed poll and the upward pointed ears. The most important breed quality is the tasty marbled beef.

Source: Marleen Felius, Cattle breeds - an encyclopedia, Doetinchem, Netherlands : Misset, 1995

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